Implantable defibrillators detect the onset of abnormal heart rhythms and apply corrective electrical therapy, specifically one or more bursts of electric current to the heart. A defibrillator includes a set of electrical leads, which extend from a pulse generator housing into the heart. Within the pulse generator housing are a battery for supplying power, monitoring circuitry for detecting abnormal heart rhythms, and a capacitor for delivering the bursts of electric current through the leads to the heart. Since defibrillators are usually implanted in the left region of the chest or in the abdomen, a smaller size device, which is still capable of delivering the required level of electrical energy, is desirable. Accordingly, smaller and more powerful capacitors are desirable.
One type of capacitor is a flat capacitor. Flat capacitors have a layered stack of capacitor elements. The stack includes a series of anode and cathode foil layers each separated by a separator layer. To ensure that a capacitor stack does not short out and that it takes up as little volume as possible it is important to carefully align each layer of the capacitor stack when constructing the capacitor stack.